Posted on 01/04/2017 5:59:39 PM PST by naturalman1975
“PANCASILA”, a word that embodies the Indonesian national philosophy, is at the centre of a high-profile spat between Australia and its close neighbour.
Many Australians may be scratching their heads at the Indonesia’s reaction to an apparent play on words making fun of their national ideology, but one expert has explained why it’s so offensive.
According to Indonesia’s Kompas newspaper, the country suspended relations with Australia in early December after an Indonesian special forces trainer who was teaching at an Australian military facility in Perth discovered writing that insulted Pancasila, the national philosophy.
Associate Professor Greg Fealy of the Australian National University said the furore appeared to be over a joke.
According to The Australianan instructor from the Indonesian special forces unit Kopassus, went to the Perth base for training but felt uneasy at some of the topics discussed in class, which allegedly included how the Indonesian military was involved in war crimes and human-rights violations during Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor.
While it has not been confirmed, it’s believed the Indonesian officer went to the academy’s head office to complain and reportedly found a play on words referencing Pancasila, but ending the word with “gila” which means crazy or mad in Indonesian.
Not every military officer would have been offended by the apparent joke, said Prof Fealy, but there was a high risk of offence.
The professor, who is an expert on Indonesian politics, said Pancasila — meaning “five principles” — was very important to Indonesians as these represent the country’s national ideology.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
The backstory is about control over the island of Timor.
The Indos invaded and brought settlers into Timor and executed the Timor leadership. The Timorese fought back and won with the help of the Aussies and our Marine support.
Now the east half of the island is independent Timor Leste with a permanent Aussie base and training center for our Marines.
The issue is about land not religion even though the Timorese are not Muslim.
The Indos should be a little less sensitive about their image and more sensitive to the suffering they have caused the Timorese.
Timor Leste was a Portuguese possession until Portugal gave up her colonies after the 1974 revolution. The inhabitants are virtually all Catholic—the only majority-Christian country in East Asia apart from the Philippines.
Mark
“the Indonesian officer went to the academy’s head office to complain and reportedly found a play on words referencing Pancasila, but ending the word with “gila” which means crazy or mad in Indonesian” — I doubt the average English speaking Australian soldier would know enough Indonesian to understand this, and even if this alleged gibe was directed to Australian officers who may know some Indonesian, I have doubts that they would be joking like this in Indonesian. It must have been a joke directed by and/or to Indonesians. I think we are not getting the whole story here.
Bingo. Your command of these details is impressive.
Indonesian is a common language taught in Australian schools - they are one of our nearest geographical neighbours. It’s really not uncommon for ADF personnel to speak Bahasa Indonesia.
Pancasila is “five precepts”. It is used in Buddism, for the five precepts of Buddhism, but the “pancasila” of Indonesia, a mainly Muslim and partly Hindu country, are different, including belief in “one God”, which obviously has nothing to do with Buddhism, or for that matter Hinduism. This formulation was created by Sukarno in the late 40s as a basis for a national philosophy.
I knew about “punch” but never made the connection with Punjab. There is also Bencharong, a Thai style of metal tableware, means “five colors”.
I’ve studied and learned foreign languages too. It doesn’t mean I would be able easily to make jokes in a non-native language that I had studied.
This isn’t a complex joke, though - it’s changing the ending of one word.
It is said that Finns are most closely related to Hungarians than any other ethnic group.
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